Chiang Mai (Oct 2023): In Search of Weed & Pigs

October 28, 2023 • Reading Time: 7 minutes

We went to Chiang Mai to check out the weed shops, so let me get my report out of the way:

The weed industry in Chiang Mai (and probably throughout Thailand) is clearly aimed at tourists - you can tell from where the weed dispensaries are located. The 2 main clusters in Chiang Mai are Old City (touristy place with a lot of wats, hotels, and bars) and Nimman (trendy area near airport, lots of expats, eateries, boutique hotels).

We decided to make Nimman our base. First, we got a room in a hotel surrounded by dispensaries - I wanted to be able to walk back to homebase in case I conked out.

Nimman is a hipster place and the weed dispensaries here are suitably trendy. The most approachable one is Kokoro, a Japanese cafe serving green tea with beginner-friendly smokes and edibles. Other cafes have different feels, e.g. Weed Angel - industrial homey bachelor pad; High Times - chill cafe with lots of chrome. 

Staff are friendly and accommodating to first-timers, giving us a crash course in weed strains and strengths. You can buy cannabis at about 300 to 600 baht per gram. Otherwise, pre-rolled joints and edibles are available too at maybe 150 to 180 baht a pop.

We smoked a joint, but Jon didn't enjoy inhaling hot smoke. Briefly considered a bong, but thought it might be just as irritating. So we decided to buy edibles instead. It was a pretty bad idea. Let's just say we lost 2 days from eating whole gummies instead of the recommended half. Anyway, after this experience I can confirm that I dislike being stoned. 

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After our eventual recovery we rented a bike to ride up the mountains. Jon was excited about the Honda Scoopy, the most popular scooter in Thailand. It took an age to get to Doi Inthanon National Park, though, in light of its low horsepower. Also it wasn't a pleasant ride - mostly dusty highway with no little shops and villages to explore.

The air got cooler once we entered the National Park. We weren't interested in summiting the highest point of Thailand - opting instead to hang out in the Karen-populated Mae Klang Luang village.

We had stopped for coffee and lunch at a cafe overlooking the valley when it started raining, so we took a little wood cabin containing a bed, a bathroom, and an outdoor terrace. It was super lovely here - cool weather, rice terraces, a little bubbling brook - and we started talking about retiring up in the mountains. We'd have to get a Toyota Hilux and a satellite dish, like everyone else in the village.

By the way, the food up in the mountains is somehow even better than in the city. Maybe it's simpler. We had a dish of sliced zucchini with scrambled eggs, fried in pork lard and shallots, that I can still remember the taste of.

Thank you, village pig.

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A post about Chiang Mai would be weird without any mention of food, especially Northern Thai food. Discoveries I'm into:

  • Zucchini with scrambled eggs (described above)

  • Sun-dried bananas

  • Night market "cai png"

  • Lanna sausage

  • Chiang Da (mountain greens pictured above, at Magnolia Cafe)

  • Bon o Bon chocolate

  • Deep fried eggs

I didn't think khao soi was that great (then again, only had it once, at Khao Soi Nimman). The coffee was underwhelming too. Give me Kapal Api any day...

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After you've gone on a 2-month trip, this 6-day trip to Chiang Mai felt a little disappointing. Or maybe housesitting/workaway-ing has ruined travel for me. 

Feelings like these are good data, though. They prompt me to ask: what do I want out of travel? And the answer is pretty clear: new, scary, life-expanding experiences. So activities like eating and shopping and going to cafes and chilling in hotel beds, although perfectly pleasant things to do in Chiang Mai, don't make the cut.

I don't like that we went through the entire trip as pure consumers. There was no work to be done, at least for me (Jon had to put in the effort of driving the scooter up and down Doi Inthanon). Mostly, we threw money at places and received a consumer experience. And I know that's how tourism works, generally; it just wasn't very satisfying to me. 

We ate a great deal of excellent food, some of which were Michelin-endorsed. Yet I would have enjoyed shopping at the local Makro Food Service and cooking our own meals more, even if they tasted a bit shit. We stayed in various boutique hotels and a homestay, all very comfortable, yet I might have preferred to put in some work for our accommodation. 

Labour would have deepened my relationship to the place, if not the people. Sort of like the IKEA effect, elevating things like food or accommodation from merely products we paid for. I think Marx was right to say that money can alienate people. 

Travelling without a bag

This 6-day trip was my first time travelling without a bag! Apart from wallet, phone and passport, here's what I took with me:

  • 1 pair underwear

  • toothbrush + toothpaste

  • 5 dental floss picks

  • comb

  • eyebrow pencil

  • moisturiser

  • earplugs

  • spare hairtie

  • mini notebook + pen 

I wore: a sports bra, Uniqlo Airism boxers, convertible pants, old T-shirt I'm willing to throw away, socks and shoes, and - the one piece of specialty gear I bought for this trip - a flannel shirt with extra zipper pockets. The shirt was my bag, basically. I wore it when it was cool and tied it around my waist when it was warm.

So how did it work out? Well, of course it was nice not carrying one. I did use stuff from Jon's bag, like our phone charger. But 1 backpack between 2 people isn't bad either. We easily fit on a tiny scooter. Next time I would probably forgo the eyebrow pencil, bring less moisturizer, and a bigger hairbrush. Since I only washed my underwear (but not socks or clothes) I felt pretty grimy by Day 4, but not enough to care.